


25 Days of Ficmas 2019

by Rachel_Lu



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: 25 Days of Fic, Christmas, F/M, Fluff, You know how this goes, it's just gonna be soft content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 5,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21637471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rachel_Lu/pseuds/Rachel_Lu
Summary: 25 Days of Ficmas Tenrose prompts! Most will probably be pretty short, but I hope you enjoy them!
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 56
Kudos: 82





	1. Workshop

The way the Doctor never seemed to be still boggled Rose’s mind. She loved nothing more than having her rest at the end of the day, and that included her alone time without the Doctor. On the contrary, he was  _ always  _ talking, either to her or the TARDIS, and he always seemed a bit peeved when he couldn’t be doing that.

Today, though, he was missing. He’d been missing all day, actually.

She knew he was on the TARDIS, but that wasn’t really too much help either. He could be anywhere. She touched the coral in the console room and asked the TARDIS silently to help her locate the Doctor. 

Lights down one of the hallways started to flicker, and Rose followed the lights until she reached a door she had never seen before. It was wide and metallic looking, but not actually metal- it felt more wooden to the touch. She knocked, just in case the Doctor wanted to be alone, and wasn’t surprised to hear a cheerful “Come in!” Ring from the other side.

She entered slowly and saw a small room with what looked to be a workbench against the far wall, with all kinds of parts and alien materials scattered along the rest of the space. The Doctor’s jacket was thrown over a coat rack and he was sitting on a stool that he spun around to face her once the door shut behind her.

“Hello, Rose!” He beamed at her.

She couldn’t help but smile back. “Hello,” She said, “What are you up to?”  
“I’m sorry, were you bored?”  
“I can take care of myself, ta. Just thought that I hadn’t seen you all day and wanted to say hello.”

He blinked. “It’s been all day?”

“Yeah, it’s about six my time.”

“Dinner?” 

“If you like.”  
He nodded and turned back around to start putting his tools away.

“Hang on, though, what are you doing?” She asked. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this room before, and it certainly had your attention.”

“I… Haven’t been tinkering as much as I used to.”

“Why’s that?” 

“I’ve been busy,” he stared at her, but he’s not blaming her. It’s more like he’s telling her that he’s been spending most of his time with her.

She turned away, feeling herself blush. “Okay, well, then, I’ll leave you to it.”

“Ah… No, you don’t have to do that,” he scuffed his toe on the ground a little, looking suddenly shy. “You could… Stay here, if you wanted, keep me company. Have a chat.” He gestured to a little padded armchair that it looked like he’d built. For her? Her heart swelled. 

“Okay,” She said, climbing up into the chair. “Whatcha building?”


	2. Tinsel

“Oh no. Rose. No. Absolutely not. What is that?”

She blinked, looking over at him. She was standing on a stool in the console room, draping the silvery material all over the Christmas tree that the TARDIS had helped her put up. “You’re a genius,” she responded, “Figure it out.”  
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Well, I suppose I know it’s tinsel. What I don’t understand is what it’s doing in our console room.”  
“It’s almost Christmas, and don’t give me that ‘time is relative’ nonsense because I’ve been keeping a calendar and my time, it’s almost Christmas. Therefore,” She gestured to the tree. “We’re decorating.”

He looked like he wanted to fight her on it, to tell her no, but then her lower lip started to jut out and her eyes got  _ very  _ big and sad. He blew out his cheeks and shoved his hands into his pockets. The two of them stared at each other for awhile, in a bit of a standoff, but Rose Tyler had a habit of winning Every Single Argument she and the Doctor had, and this wasn’t necessarily an argument, but since it vaguely resembled one, she had a feeling she’d win. 

Still making eye contact, she walked over to the plug the TARDIS had helpfully installed and plugged the tree in. Happy white lights merrily lit up all the way around the tree and she raised her eyebrows at the Doctor.

“Look. It’s pretty, you Scrooge.”

He couldn’t help but laugh at that. “I am not a Scrooge.”

“Well, a bit,” She said, “Here, help me decorate, there’s still some tinsel and ornaments.”

And, as usual, she had him. He sighed, a bit dramatically, and headed over to her side. He took a handful of the silver stuff from her and eyed up the tree. He draped some of it over a branch that Rose hadn’t already drenched in it. Looking back over at her, she was grinning widely at him. Rose wasn’t a simple woman, but it didn’t take a lot of effort from him to make her happy. And he’d do somersaults and backbends to keep her happy if that’s what it took.

Luckily for him, she never asked him to engage in gymnastics for her. 

They decorated the tree together, and Rose revealed that she’d had managed to bring some of the ornaments she’d had from her childhood, which made the Doctor feel just a bit warm and fuzzy inside.

“Won’t Jackie notice that you’ve taken them?” He asked quietly as she hung one up that had her baby picture on it with the year written underneath. 

“Nah, I told her I was takin’ some of them,” she said, “She’s got a ton of them, not enough to fill a whole tree.” She lifted a shoulder, just barely glancing over at him. “Also, I wanted a little piece of my home at Christmas well, at my… Home.”

Well, now the Doctor was feeling _very_ warm and fuzzy inside, and he couldn’t stop himself from wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pressing a kiss to her temple. She laughed and wound an arm around his waist.   
“See, told you it was pretty.”

He tried not to think about the passage of time, how she was slipping through his fingertips, even as he held onto her. He tilted his cheek against her head and smiled a little, willing the ache in his heart to go away. “Yeah,” he said, “You were right.”  
“I always am.”

“Ahh, you ruined it.”

She poked him in the side and he yelped, squirming away from her. “Well, if you’re done ruining my _console room,_ why don’t we go have hot chocolate in the galley, hm?”  
She wrinkled her nose at him. “You helped me ruin it!”

“I did! And then after Christmas,  _ you  _ have to help me  _ un-ruin it.” _

She looked over at their tree, a wistful smile on her lips. “I don’t want to think about Christmas being over just yet, you know? Let’s just enjoy the moment.”

He gave, taking her hand and tugging her along towards the galley. “Fine. Christmas can last all year if you want it to, Rose Tyler.”

She grinned. “That’s what I’m counting on.”


	3. Cider

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for these being so short! If I wasn't in school I could probably make them longer, but either way I still wanted to write them so I hope no one minds too much!

They’ve been to a thousand ceremonies, festivals, you name it. Only some of them were familiar to Rose, and even the Doctor had to squint hard to remember if he’d been there before or not a few times. Rose was enamored with watching every new culture and planet and how they simply celebrated being alive. Some of them were holiday festivals, some of them were music festivals, and some of them didn’t really seem to have a purpose at all. 

All of them were exciting in their own way and Rose never tired of them, though she had a feeling the Doctor did. He never said anything about it, though, knowing how much she was enjoying herself and not ever wanting to spoil her mood.

One such festival was a Christmas one, upon Rose’s request, and though her nose was pink and snow was wetting her hair, she looked dreadfully happy. She was also completely oblivious to the fact that the Doctor was alternating between staring at her adoringly and checking her temperature to make sure she wasn’t getting too cold. 

The locals were humanoid, so they didn’t stick out like they honestly usually did in situations like this. 

“What’s that?” Rose asked suddenly, pointing at a stand that was selling some sort of beverage.

The name was something not familiar to her, even if she could read it in English. The Doctor took her hand and pulled her over to the stand. “Cider! Good old apple cider, well, not really apples, mind you, more like  _ appleish  _ cider.” He beamed at her and saw she was already grinning back up at him.

“Is it safe?” She asked. 

He soncied a cup of it when the man running the stand wasn’t looking and nodded. “Perfectly.”

They paid for two cups and Rose felt the warmth travel all the way down to her stomach. She sighed, closing her eyes a little. “That’s very nice.”

“Not apples, though.”

“Mm, no, it’s a little more tart than apple cider usually is, isn’t it?” She peered down into the cup. “Really good, though.”  
Chuffed that she liked something that he’d bought for her, he took her hand again and they kept on walking, him swinging their hands a little as she enjoyed the lights and the decorations. There truly was something magical about the holidays, though of course she wasn’t necessarily sure how to put her finger on it. Maybe it was just that for a little bit of the year, people tried extra hard to get along and be good to each other. Maybe it was because the Doctor doted on her a little extra because he knew she’d be feeling a bit homesick. She buried her nose in her scarf and smiled to herself. Maybe it was both. 

“I wanna thank you for bringing me to all these,” she said suddenly, looking up at him.

His returning glance was surprised. “Rose Tyler, you don’t have to thank me for something like that!” 

“Yeah, well, I know you like running better, and y’know most of the time I do too, but I just… Appreciate it when you do slow down a little, for me. I just wanted to thank you.”  
He squeezed her hand. “You know, it’s as much for me as it is you.”

“Nah, you’re just saying that to make me feel better.”  
“No, really! I enjoy spending this… Ah, well, I enjoy spending time with you like this. Is that okay?”  
She felt her cheeks get warm but she just _couldn’t stop beaming._ “Yeah, that’s just fine,” She said, and popped up on her toes to kiss him on the cheek. While he was still sputtering at the action, she dragged him along to the next stand that held plenty of pretty, distracting decorations. 

The Doctor took the opportunity to kiss her properly under some mistletoe (Or, well, close enough to mistletoe) later that night.


	4. Tree

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2 prompts today because I'm already behind! I miss having free time!
> 
> Enjoy!

In the end, they can’t say how they got into this, not really. 

Well, if the Doctor’s brain were working at the moment, he really might be able to conjure something up, but the fact of the matter is that he’s had to climb a tree to escape  _ something _ that’s following them and Rose is right in front of him, and they’re perched on the same branch, so really, it’s hard to think of anything at all.

Rose can’t say how she got there either, and it’s been a long while since she’s climbed a tree, but the branches on this planet are much thicker than Earth so it was easy to climb. She can hear the Doctor breathing behind her, not because he’s being loud, but just because she’s very attuned to his emotions in situations like this.

“Are you okay?” She asks finally, looking over her shoulder at him.

“Me? Brilliant. Yes. Absolutely,” he offers her a tight smile and she wrinkles her nose at him in response. 

“Um, so. The thing chasing us. Where is it?”

“You know what, Rose, I think this tree would be a fine Christmas tree, if it wasn’t so big. As it is now, we definitely couldn’t fit it in the TARDIS, but that’s a nice thought, don’t you think?”

She blinks at him. “Are you trying to distract me?”

He leans forward, over her shoulder, almost in her personal space. “Would I do that?”  
She leans backwards, almost mockingly. “Yes.”

“Ah. Well, you know me too well, it seems.”

She laughs. “So you don’t know where it is?”

“I don’t even know if anything was even really following us. This was more of a precaution.”

“Huh?” She turns around, which is not difficult to do on such a wide branch, and stares him in the face. “You mean to say we climbed this tree ‘just in case’? That there might not be anything following us after all??”  
He squints up at the sky, looking around and pretty much everywhere but her. “Did I say that, exactly? I feel like I didn’t. I- well, isn’t it better safe than sorry, at any rate?”

She wants to be mad at him, because they’ve been sitting up here for several minutes and seemingly for no reason. Honestly, she can’t be mad at him, though, because in the end, he was doing it to try to keep her safe. She sighs a little, slouching forward.

“Yeah, I guess it is.”  
“...Would you like a hug?”  
“Would _you_ like a hug, Doctor?”  
He looks at her for a moment. “Sort of.”

She huffs and scoots forward on the branch, wrapping her arms around his waist and settling her chin on his shoulder. He hums in a happy sort of way and hugs her back, tilting his cheek against the side of her head. 

“You’re lucky that this branch is the size of a table, since you’ve decided you want a cuddle,” she says softly, trying her best to sound grumpy. 

“Well… I suppose that is lucky. Even luckier that you’re a fast climber.”

“So are you! Practically flew up, you did.”

“Well, I thought something was chasing us.”

“And now you’re not sure?”  
“Hm.”  
She laughs and squeezes his waist, huddling a little closer. Not for warmth or anything, just because she can. “Maybe we should.... Wait a few minutes, just to see if anything is following.” 

He holds her a little closer, she pretends not to notice. 

“I think that’s a good idea.”


	5. Gingerbread

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> slowly getting caught up because I"m the worst!!! Sorry everyone, hope you still enjoy!

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know that you were allergic.”

Rose had to hold herself back from retching again- covering her mouth and shaking her head. The Doctor already felt bad enough, and she didn’t want him to feel any worse. 

“No, it’s okay,” she said, leaning her head against the rim of the toilet. “I didn’t think to say anything.”

He sat against the bathroom wall and watched her with big, worried eyes. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

She closed her eyes and shook her head as best she could. “No, I’m just gonna sit here for awhile. I’ll be fine…”

“Tea? Crackers? You name it.”

She laughed a little and shook her head again. “No, Doctor, there’s nothing you can do. I just have to wait it out.”

She knew that the Doctor was frustrated that he couldn’t do anything - but he also hated her being sick. She knew that even though the TARDIS was capable of many things, it wasn’t capable of curing this particular allergy. Usually, Rose would be okay with that, but she was feeling so awful that she almost regretted not asking the Doctor to conjure up a way to cure her allergies.

He sat there, staring at her. “Are you okay?”

“Mm hm,” she closed her eyes. “Yeah, I think the worst of it is over. I just wanna go to bed, I think.”

He scrambled to help her up, and Rose leaned her head against his chest the moment she stood up. He pressed a kiss to her hair and she giggled a little bit as he led her out of the bathroom and into her room. 

She felt her stomach roll again but there was nothing left to come up, so she pushed it back down, sighing deeply as the feeling past. She sat on the bed heavily, struggling to even crawl up the bed to lay down.

The Doctor hurried to scoop her up bridal style and lay her down the correct way on the bed, pulling the covers up over her. He laid a cool hand on her forehead and her eyes fluttered closed again.   
“Better?” he asked softly.”

“Mm…” She could already feel herself falling into sleep. He laughed a little, even though she could tell it was forced, and she felt the bed dip as he sat next to her. He moved his hand from her forehead and ran his fingers through her hair instead. She turned her head towards him to better receive the touch.

“You could stay… If you want.” 

“Surprised you want me around, since I fed you gingerbread.”

She laughed. “You didn’t know I was allergic. And I didn’t know it was gingerbread. I’m not mad at you.” She reached up and tugged his sleeve. “C’mon.”

He sighed and stood up. She heard him toe off his shoes and pull his jacket and tie off before crawling into bed on the opposite side of her. He lay on his side, facing her. 

She opened her eyes and looked over at him, smiling again. “Are  _ you  _ upset?”

“At me.” 

“Eloquent, Doctor.”

“I don’t like when you’re sick.”  
“Mm. Neither do I.”

“Especially when it’s my fault.”

“ _ Doctor.” _

She rolled onto her side as well and reached out to touch his cheek. “I’m okay though. I’m not deathly allergic, so it’s not a big deal.” 

Before he could say anything else, she burrowed into his arms, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her nose to his chest. If she was feeling a bit more well, she might have been embarrassed at her forwardness.

“Goodnight, Doctor.”

His hands touched her back as he reciprocated the cuddle, a bit in awe.

“Rose… It’s three pm.”

“ _ Goodnight, Doctor.” _


	6. Eggnog

Rose was almost tired of the idea of eggnog. Her mother had it (and spiked it) at their Christmas party every year. And now the Doctor, the  _ newly regenerated Doctor,  _ was celebrating a late Christmas/New Year’s Day combination party. Lots or Rose’s old friends were there, but she was still feeling too much of the shock of the whole adventure they’d had on Christmas day to enjoy it too much. Sensory overload, she thought to herself. It had to be that.

The Doctor, on the other hand, was having an absolutely fantastic time, and it could be said that Jackie had, once again, spiked the eggnog. The Doctor had proclaimed that it was brilliant and off he went. Rose had lost him for about a half hour, but luckily, he’d done nothing but drink.

She found him later outside the flat, standing by the edge of the balcony. Carefully, she approached him, leaning her elbows on the banister.

“Are you alright?”  
He turned his head sharply to face her. “Brilliant! Graaaaand.” 

Okay, so drunk.

She laughed a little. ‘How much of that eggnog have you had?”

He just stared at her, which was, quite honestly, answer enough. After a moment, he sighed. “You… Look beautiful tonight.”

“Thank you.”

“I mean it. You… You’re just.” He reached out and touched her cheek. “You know?  
She bit her lip. “I’m not sure that I do.”

“I’m sorry I changed.”

She blinked, her eyebrows raising. She hadn’t expected him to bring such a thing up. “Doctor, that’s not something you have to apologize for. I understand what happened, and it wasn’t your fault at all.”

“I can still be sorry,” he said quietly, “Things are different now.”

“How are they different?”

“You don’t look at me the same anymore,” He said dejectedly, taking his hand off her face and looking away. “No, I- I shouldn’t say things like that, I know, it’s not my business, but I miss it.”

“Doctor, I really have no clue what you mean.” She was confused but also felt like she should probably stop pressing him. He was drunk and it wasn’t fair for her to keep asking him questions. Unfortunately, her curiosity was really getting the better of her. 

“I saw the way you looked at me, in the beginning. And more, the longer we were together. I… I’ll miss it. You looked at me like you love me.”

Her heart fell into her stomach. She couldn’t do this. She really couldn’t do this. “Doctor, maybe we should talk about this when you’re sober.”

“I won’t want to talk about it when I’m sober,” He said, moving so that he was facing her fully, and cupping both her cheeks in his hands. “Will you stay with me? Really?”

She nodded, entranced by the darkness in his eyes. “Yeah- of course. I meant what I said, Doctor. I”m staying with you.”

He pursed his lips and seemed to come to a conclusion in his head. “Good,” he said. “Good.” He leaned forward and kissed her softly, and Rose couldn’t help but reciprocate. After a moment, though, she pulled away.

“Doctor, we’ll talk about this if you remember it in the morning.”

He pressed his forehead to hers. “Promise?”

“Yeah… Yeah, I promise.”

It was hard not to promise when he looked at her like that.


	7. Garland

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one ended up being a weird free verse prose poem- I don't have an excuse for this

Wrapped around the TARDIS, through and under the railings.

She was careful, making sure that it lay just right.

It would be perfect, she promised herself. Promised the Doctor, when he returned. 

“It’s pretty,” he told her. 

She smiled, hands on her hips.

He  _ really  _ liked when she smiled.

The garland lights up, she had told him before, and she’d been so excited about it. 

When the rainbow lights lit up the console room and colored her face red and blue and green, the Doctor couldn’t do anything except grab her and kiss her. 

The colors exploded behind his eyelids.

The garland was rough beneath his hands. 

But she laughed, and she was soft. 

So nothing else really mattered anyway.


	8. Ugly Jumper

“Oh, Doctor… That is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”

It was awful. He was wearing a sweater with a huge, horrendous reindeer on it, and the antlers poked out, 3d style. To pop it all out, the red nose on it lit up. Gaudy tinsel also traced down the sleeves, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever seen a green that green. He was also standing there looking very proud of himself, which made it more embarrassing. 

“You don’t like it?” He asked, but he was smiling at her. 

“No. I hate it. Get rid of it.”

“I could get you a matching one.”  
She laughed then, so hard she had to double over, her arms wrapped around her waist. “No! No, I can tell you that I don’t want that.”

It was possible, though, _somehow,_ that he was still so good looking. It was unfair, really. No one should be allowed to look so good in something so horrendous.   
“I especially hate that it lights up,” she told him, crossing her arms. 

“I think you like it,” he took a step closer.

She laughed again, unable to control it. “Doctor, there is absolutely nothing sexy about this. I don’t know how you think tonight is going to end, but it’s not whatever you’re thinking right now.”

He seemed to deflate a little at that, and she almost felt bad, but she still had to bite her lip to keep from laughing more. Finally, she broke, laughing heartily and going over to hug him. “That’s okay, though. The effort is there.”

He huffed into her hair but hugged her back. 

“The nose is pressing my sternum though, Doctor.”

“Is that a bad thing.”

“Well, it’s sure not a good one.”

She pulled back from him and looked up, trying to decide if he was upset or not. He smiled at her softly.

“Would you like to go to a Christmas party tonight?” He asked after looking at her for a while.

She grinned. “Do I have to wear one of those?” she asked, gesturing to him.

“No,” He laughed. 

“Then yeah,” she nodded, beaming up at him. “Let’s go.”


	9. Party

John hadn’t wanted to go to the party at all, but his roommate, Jack, had forced him. He didn’t like that sort of scene, the partying and the drinking, but he’d ended up drinking, just like everyone else at the party, and then he’d seen her. 

She was beautiful. Blonde hair, hazel eyes, a charming smile. She wore a red sweater and dark wash jeans. For all intents and purposes, he should’ve seen her as a bit understated, as other girls there were dressed far more glamorously, but she drew his eye in a way that no other woman at university ever had. 

“You should go talk to her,” Jack said, after noticing John staring after her. “That’s Rose Tyler, she’s an art history major. And she’s very available.”

“Is she?” John asked softly.

“Yep!” Jack chirped happily, “So you should probably go say something.”  
Spurred on by the alcohol and the magnetic field that surrounded Rose Tyler, he found himself walking towards her. 

“Hi, I’m John Smith,” he said, grinning at her. 

She smiled back at him. “I’m Rose Tyler.”

Luckily, he managed to hold himself back from saying something, like ‘I know’. Instead, he offered, “I’m a little drunk, but you’re really beautiful and I’ve never seen you around campus before. What are you majoring in?”

She blushed sweetly and looked down. “Well, thanks. I’m in art history. You probably haven’t seen me around because I honestly don’t leave my room too much. Pretty busy.”

“No, yeah, me too. I’m a physics major.”

“Oh, well, I can believe that.”

They ended up sitting down at the dining room table and chatting and drinking for what felt like hours but was actually probably only an hour. After that time, Rose reached out and grabbed John by the front of his shirt, getting his attention in more ways than one. 

“It may be because I’m drunk but I would really,  _ really  _ like to kiss you.”

“Um…” He froze. This pretty girl wanted to kiss him.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to! I get it. I just thought-”

“No, I want to! I was staring at you, before I came over, you’re just- wow, I mean, you’re beautiful, and I”m some dorky physics major.”

“You’re smart. It’s hot.”

“Really?” His voice was in a much higher register now.

“Yeah. So can I kiss you now?”

“Please,” he breathed. 

She let out a huge breath of relief and she pulled him into her, sliding on hand up into his hair and crushing her lips to his.

Kissing her was like catching a glimpse of something so rare that he would need to sear it into his memory now or it would go away forever. But she didn’t stop kissing him, kept moving closer until his hands were twisted in her shirt and doing this while sitting in two different chairs was incredibly difficult.

Finally, they broke away for air. John stared at Rose, her lips red and swollen, but couldn’t bring himself to take his hands off of her. “I- Would you like to maybe leave?”

“I’d love to.”  
It was exceptionally hard for John to go home for the holidays when a beautiful, intelligent woman was waiting for him back at school. 


	10. Cookies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been... Awful with this......................... I lost access to a computer when I transferred schools, so now I'm just doing my best, haha... I'll still post up until 25 but it may take me a few days. They'll be less holiday themed but I hope you all still enjoy them!
> 
> I'm sorry that I've been so lacking with this!!!! Happy Holidays!

It was no secret that Rose Tyler was terrible at cooking. 

Not just terrible. Quite possibly the worst. But she still wanted to do something nice, like bake something for the Doctor. She felt like she could never repay him for the things he showed her, at least monetarily, but she could try to make him cookies that didn’t resemble (and taste like) frisbees. 

The trouble was, the Doctor caught her fighting tears over another pan of discs. He stood watching her, in the doorway of the galley, hands in his trouser pockets. 

“Are you okay?” he asked softly. 

She turned her head towards him and smiled a little. “Yep… Just fine. I just wanted to try to do something nice for you, you know, to pay you back, for-”

“Pay me back?” He sounded surprised, which in turn, made her surprised.

She blushed a little, feeling uncomfortable under his gaze. “I… You know, you just take me all these places, and we eat out a lot when we go those places, and you have to abide by weird human allergies I may have to alien food, and you buy me all kinds of stuff and I just wanted to do something to thank you. It’s not a lot, I know....”

“Rose!” he blinked, staring at her with his mouth agape. “You don’t have to do _anything_ to repay me. We’re mates, we travel together.”  
“Mates usually split the bill,” Rose muttered. “And I can’t do that.” She gestured miserably to the pan. “But I also can’t cook. Or bake. I… Ugh.” She picked up the pan and dumped the cookies into the garbage. She could still feel his eyes on her and was trying to ignore it. 

“Don’t be upset,” he said, finally approaching her and taking her by the shoulders to make her look at him. “Really. Don’t. I’m flattered and honored that you would even want to do something like that for me, but I don’t need it. Your company is all the ‘payment’ I need, and I don’t want you to pay me.”

“But still.”

“Tell you what then. How about we make cookies together? I’m sure the TARDIS has a recipe she’d like me to use that maybe I haven’t in awhile.”

And so they did just that, and to Rose’s surprise, the Doctor was actually very good at baking. She supposed it would be difficult to live for almost a millennium and not be good at a great many things.

The cookies came out perfectly, and really, she shouldn’t have been surprised. 

“I mean it.” he said softly.

“Huh?”

“You, here with me? That’s all the ‘payment’ I need. I don’t travel with people I don’t want to travel with, Rose. I would never resent you for not giving me money or credits or whatever. You’re wonderful.”

Rose smiled up at him, feeling an odd sense of pride. “Really?”

“Really really.” He rocked back on his heels, no longer looking at her. Although, we should do more activities like this, I think. It was… Fun.”

“Yeah, it was.”


End file.
